My sims won't use the dishwasher in the kitchen. Instead, they use the bathroom sink. I think it's because the bathroom sink is closer to the dining table. But the dishwasher is only like 5 steps away!

However, if they're only eating by themselves, they will sometimes use the dishwasher. But if they group dishes together, they will use the bathroom sink.

Any ideas? I can't really move the bathroom now since the whole house is built already...

I tried putting it right next to the kitchen entrance. They still won't use it!

Ditch the dishwasher. That's what I did. I had two dishwashers and a sink in the kitchen: my sims marched off to use the bathroom sinks on the upper floor and also trudged all the way downstairs to use the lone sink in the basement gym.
Are you on the latest patch level? I don't relish updating my mods, so my game is not fully updated. Yet I thought I read that they fixed this glitch. Maybe not.

Ditch the dishwasher. That's what I did. I had two dishwashers and a sink in the kitchen: my sims marched off to use the bathroom sinks on the upper floor and also trudged all the way downstairs to use the lone sink in the basement gym.
Are you on the latest patch level? I don't relish updating my mods, so my game is not fully updated. Yet I thought I read that they fixed this glitch. Maybe not.

Yep. I just give up. I even tried moving the bathroom door so it's further away from the dining area. Now it's 60% kitchen sink, 30% dishwasher, 10% bathroom sink. At least they use the kitchen sink now...

Wall cupboards are known to block access to dishwashers, as are bulky objects atop the units like the microwave oven. Can a sim interact with the dishwasher at all, such as upgrade it? Try removing wall cupboard and see if you have better luck. If it does turn out to be the problem, then when putting wall cupboard back, let it do its default snap-to-wall thing, then use bb.moveobjects cheat, hold down ALT key and slightly reposition wall cupboard from its default snap-to position. It's a bit hit-and-miss but it can work, if you really want to keep the wall cupboard that is.

Also, since I started using this mod - http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=561906 - I found it has a beneficial side effect of not letting dishwashers be blocked. That is to say, since I started using it, I've never had a blocked dishwasher since. Could be just a coincidence, but maybe not.

I have this problem too and I'm fully patched. My Hitler-Crumb family won't use the dishwasher unless I direct them to it. They won't use the kitchen sink either. They don't wash dishes often but when they do they take them upstairs, ignoring the fact that they have a two bathrooms with sinks downstairs. Of course, being Hitler-Crumbs they aren't very intelligent but still----

My "solution" was: removing all sinks upstairs or in the basement or elsewhere. Now I have three sinks in the kitchen (nearly always have a big kitchen) and a dishwasher. My Sims only use the sink when the dishwasher is working.
Oh, and I use the "no handwashing"-mod, so why should there be a sink in the bathroom?

I uploaded a "No Dishes in Bathroom Sinks" mod just now -- it won't help with wonky dishwashers, but it makes it so that you can select which types of sinks sims can use to wash dishes. Looking at the screenshot in post #1 you'd need to put a different sink in that bathroom (the one you have there now seems to be one that's still dish-enabled with the mod -- you could also roll your own of course), but then the sims would at least do their dishes in the kitchen.

Hello,
I still had a problem with sims not wanting to use dishwasher (and sometimes not even a sink in the kitchen, they would go into bathroom on a second floor) with version 1.36, but I fixed it by downloading "No dishes in bathroom sinks" mod by plasticbox (huge thank you for this mod! ) and by switching dishwasher with sink, so now is dishwasher closer to dining table than sink. That solved my problem, sims now use dishwasher and if it's on then they'll use sink in the kitchen

Hello,
I still had a problem with sims not wanting to use dishwasher (and sometimes not even a sink in the kitchen, they would go into bathroom on a second floor) with version 1.36, but I fixed it by downloading "No dishes in bathroom sinks" mod by plasticbox (huge thank you for this mod! ) and by switching dishwasher with sink, so now is dishwasher closer to dining table than sink. That solved my problem, sims now use dishwasher and if it's on then they'll use sink in the kitchen

That mod by Plasticbox is outdated and I would not use it. I know this, because I've kept it updated the last several months for myself. I'd recommend using Don't Wash Dishes Where You Angry Poop instead.